There’s no journey quite as sensitive as the one to conceiving. From tracking ovulation to balancing your hormones, a lot of work and emotion goes into bringing a child into the world.
Receiving a negative pregnancy test result when trying to conceive can be frustrating and discouraging. But what happens when the negative result itself is … false? Could that negative pregnancy test be a result of actually being pregnant with twins? Let’s confront the potential myth and answer the age old question: can twins create a false negative pregnancy test?
How Do Pregnancy Tests Work?
Whether it’s in hope of a negative or positive result, it’s likely most of us have experienced taking a pregnancy test, but are actually unsure of how it all works.
The test strip that you urinate on, or dip into urine, contains antibodies that bind to human chorionic gonadotropin, known as hCG. Often referred to as the pregnancy hormone, the placenta produces this very hormone after the fertilized egg implants in the uterine lining.
While all humans have a small amount of this hormone circulating in their system at all times, it rises significantly during pregnancy. If hCG is detected while taking the test, you’ll receive a positive result, indicating pregnancy.
Can Twins Create a False Negative Pregnancy Test Result?
Short answer: it’s possible.
There are a few things that can lead to a false negative pregnancy test result, from testing too early, to taking an expired test to drinking too much water and having diluted urine.
While it isn’t always the case, high levels of hCG can interfere with the accuracy of pregnancy test results. Known by experts as the “hook effect,” if the hCG is too high, a digital pregnancy test can be overwhelmed by its levels and produce a false negative result.
Carrying multiple embryos during pregnancy may lead to a surplus of hCG, thus causing a false negative pregnancy test due to the levels of hCG being overwhelmingly high. For this reason, some pregnant women do not realize at first that they are, indeed, pregnant. This is why twins and even triplets can sometimes cause a false-negative pregnancy test.
What To Do
The journey of conceiving is no easy feat. If you’re experiencing persistent pregnancy symptoms yet being met with consistent negative results, the best course of action is to get your test done at a medical office rather than relying on an at home test.
While they are certainly optimized for accuracy, at-home tests may be expired, faulty or taken incorrectly. A healthcare provider can perform a blood test or ultrasound to confirm or negate the pregnancy.